Many people look for an understanding of social media using the book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Referencing specifically chapters 4-9 I looked for this meaning. These chapters spiciflly looked at communication to and from your audience. In order to better explain this, the book also explained the four step approach to utilizing social strategies, using the POST method. Which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology.

The authors explain that by understanding your consumers social computing behaviors you can better your brand and literally watch it grow within the groundswell. Keeping in mind that everything that is said about your company on the web isn’t going to be positive. Your company must be able to respond and address these negative comments. The authors propose a few steps to better listen on the web:

1.Find out what your brand stands for
2.Understand how buzz is shifting
3.Save research money, increase research responsiveness
4.Find the sources of influence in your market
5.Manage PR crises
6.Generate new product and marketing ideas

Thanks to the internet, there are many ways to communicate to your consumers. A few tactics include video’s, blog posts, social media, and online communities. Besides understanding your consumer’s you also have to be able to communicate to them as well. By loosening control and allowing the consumers to drive the brand’s image the groundswell can transform.